Mind-Break
by Fanatic-Fanatica
Summary: Two years after Third Impact and Earth was returning to normal. On the site of the Geofront, Tokyo-4 was built. A reconstructed NERV once again watching over the world. Asuka and OC are main characters, slight AU, uses both NGE and Rebuild material.
1. Chapter 1

To say that Asuka was upset, would be a massive understatement. Her mind had fallen apart. The attack by the fifteenth angel, Arael, had ruined her the days following her failure to synch with Unit 02, she had abandoned her home, run off to hide in the ruins of Tokyo-3. And here she lay, naked, lying in what her diseased mind believed to be bubbling, hot water. The dirty, brown sludge had covered her, tangling her unkempt hair. But she couldn't give a damn. She was waiting for the end, allowing the lack of sustenance to gradually whittle down her strength. If that couldn't do the job fast enough, she had 'accidentally' cut her wrists on the wreckage to speed up her demise. Somewhere, deep down, she knew Section 2 would find her. She hoped they were right on time... that is to say, just as she died.

She became aware of someone in the house with her. Section 2 had found her. Damn und blast! Why couldn't they leave her to die? Her blurred vision became brighter to one side. The unwelcome visitor was standing over her. They were dressed in white. Unusual for Section 2, if that's who they were. They sighed deeply. It wasn't burdened sigh, rather sympathetic, almost comforting. She felt a hand on her cheek, the strangers thumb gentley carressing her cheek. Why were they doing this? Weren't they going to raise the alarm? Call for help? Chances were, they had already done so.

The hand moved to her hair, ruffling it, before stroking Asuka's grimy locks. The visitor chuckled softly, giving away his sex.

He leaned down, his lips right next to her ear,

"There is always light in the darkness, Asuka. We will meet again." With that, he planted a soft kiss on her forehead. With her frazzled mind, it felt like pins and needles. He pulled away, dissappearing in a flash of white light. Seconds later, the barricade to the door was broken down. Footsteps sounded and this time, Asuka knew who it was.

Following Third Impact, Asuka always felt like she was being watched. Perhaps it was the intimacy of Instrumentality still affecting her, or perhaps the many souls who had yet to come back. Or it could've just been her developing relationship with Shinji or the fact that Rei had also managed to return.

Sometimes, her forehead stung. It would create a strong wave of emotion and heightened awareness. For reasons she couldn't work out, she felt like she was being watched intensely at these times. She would snap around, just to catch a glimpse of a man in white walking away. Every time. Every damn time.

Two years after Third Impact and Earth was returning to normal. On the site of the Geofront, Tokyo-4 was built. A reconstructed NERV once again watching over the world. Re-named SINN, it had no ties to a higher entity like SEELE. There was no Commander with an agenda of his own, but there was also none of the beings that the former NERV had been created to fight: Angels.

Despite this, SINN had endeavoured to keep an Evangelion force, rather to keep the peace between the nations of Earth. Eva Unit 01 had been recovered from orbit and SINN was now building new EVA's, right back down to 03. New pilots had been recruited. What else was there to say? SINN was going to help protect Earth, properly this time. But against what?

No-one knew the answer, but Asuka knew something bad was coming. How did she know this? A simple meteorite, burning through the night sky. What was so bad about a meteorite. The moment it touched down, her forehead stung. Except it didn't. Her mind filled with images of events she hoped never to see again. Flooding her, the images told a story, but Asuka's mind was too weakened to make sense of it. It would've helped her immensely. But she couldn't grasp it. It knocked her out cold, leaving her prone on the floor of Misato's old apartment.

The pain would be coming back soon. Too soon.


	2. Chapter 2

He looked down on the darkened planet. Very little green remained on it, all replaced by a vast sea of red. Yet this hadn't stopped humanity from rebuilding. Detailed scans of the timeline had shown the so-called 'Black Moon' had fallen back into the abyss that had been created by it's removal, filling it back up. An as yet unknown force had returned the area to it the state it been in just before Third Impact. The Geofront and the area that was now Tokyo-4 was the only vestige of plantlife in the Eastern Hemisphere. But eventually, it would all return. The red sea would become blue once again. It would take decades at best, but it would happen.

"A penny for your thoughts Captain?" Alexander Rogers 21 turned to the source of the voice.

"Commander Brooks. I was just 'admiring' the view." he spoke deeply, with a faint trace of an English accent. The dark-skinned new-comer kinked his head at his friend.

"You know the _Conundrum_'s imaging software can make it look exactly how it did before _First_ Impact, let alone Third. Why look at this red rock?" Rogers looked at Alain, a look of worth writing his face.

"So I can tell myself that there are some damn lucky people out there..." he paused, taking his eyes off Brooks and returning them to the desolate planet below, "I'm not one of them though. Something has it in for me."

Brooks sighed. He had long ago stopped trying to tell 21 that there was nothing in the Mutli-Versal Spectrum that 'had it in' for him. Whilst 21proud, proficient Captain, he was disheartened by the losses _Conundrum_ had sustained. Besides the hundreds of crew members lost, the twenty previous Alex Rogers had died, in the line of duty or, in the case of at least 2 (17 in particular), contracted some disease and died as a result of it. All this time, Brooks hadn't died once. Though even if he had, he couldn't be replaced. His backgrounds were too obscure and it wasn't known if he had any counterparts.

"You sure you still wanna do this?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Of course," Rogers replyed, "I don't get off this ship often enough." Brooks raised an eyebrow.

"There's a reason for that you know." Brooks interjected, "You're lucky the computer allowed it just this once."

"I came here expecting adventure Alain!" Rogers complained, "When you brought me along, I expected something like _Star Trek_ exploration, but it's more like _Battlestar Galactica_ 'Run Away! The bad guys are coming!' The Combine could be here any minute!"

"Not with the Transponder off. You know full well it will take the Combine far longer to locate us by our gamma emissions alone." This left Rogers speechless.

He sighed, "Can I go fly now?"

"Don't be so impatient. The Stealth Shuttle isn't like the standard Type-21's. It's a totally different design. Fortunately, you have a man standing right in front of you who is _more_ that willing to help you learn." Rogers smiled.

"I can see why Number 1 liked you. More importantly why _I_ like you."

O-O

o-o

Soaring through the clouds, the sleek shape of the _Conundrum_'s Stealth Shuttle penetrated the lower layer of the cloud cover. It's gamma particle drives whined like a jet, the eight vertically orientated red bar-like outlets glowing with energy. At first glance, one might assume the spacecraft was a simple recon machine. But all it took was to remove the maintenance hatches from its short, stubby wing-like protrusions to learn that this was not the case. Underneath the Gravimetric Electromagnetically enhanced shields, dozens of weapons systems lay dormant. It's hull plating was a special alloy with light bending properties, activated at the flip of a switch. The only parts that needed a stealth field were the Transparent Titanium windows at the front, giving it the look of a Boeing airliner. As with all vessels belonging to the former Multi-Versal Policing Task Force, it was coloured in reflective silver. The shuttle could have come right out of a 21st Century Prime Universe sci-fi flick.

It's mothership, however, was such an odd design, it was doubtful that anyone from the Prime Universe could've come up with it. It's hollow square construction was huge in terms of Width and Depth, being 3 kilometres in each, but it totally lacked in length, measuring not even a third of its diameter.

"Computer, can you confirm the source of the plant-life growth?" Rogers asked the shuttles computer system.

"Affirmative. Timeline scans give approximate readings. Growth begins about two weeks from this point. Major spurts occur in three years and steady return to normal over next twenty-five. Location is difficult to ascertain."

"That's alright," Rogers said soothingly, "Tell me the best you can."

"South-East Asia. Narrowed-down to Chinese-Taiwan-South Korean Area." Rogers winced.

"That's pretty big. Cause of the growth?"

"Rate of plantlife growth is consistent with that of one of _Conundrum_'s fertility pods." Alex lit up. His curiosity was now piqued. Apparently, _Conundrum_ would instigate the growth of new life.

"I wonder why we would need to come back in two weeks."

"COLLISION ALERT, INCOMING OBJECT" Rogers immediately kicked into gear.

"What is it? Have the stealth plates failed? Has Earth fired missiles at us?"

"Negative. Object is falling from space." Rogers eyes widened with fear. Instinctively, he looked up through the glass.

A huge mauve _thing_ was coming straight at the shuttle. WIthout a second more of hesitation, Rogers grabbed the control yoke and yanked it to one side.

He was too late.

The door slid open suddenly, then was slammed shut just as abruptly. Asuka stormed onto the balcony and crashed into the railings, slumping to the floor. Her sobs permeated the air. No-one could begin to understand her despair, how much the world was against her.

"Mama," she wailed, "Mama I'm so sorry! I didn't want you to die!"

The images came flooding back to her once again. The moment the Mass Production Eva's had destroyed Unit 02, killing Mama, killed _her_. The pain in her eye... where her eye once was, showed itself. Her salty tears burned the tenderised flesh beneath the eyepatch. Everytime it hurt, she couldn't help holding her right arm close to her chest. The dark scar that ran the length of her forearm was a grave reminder of the horrible moment. Yet, now she thought about it, both she and Mama had died at the same time, uniting them. Instrumentality allowed her to converse with Kyoko again, but unlike Asuka, she could never come back. She dared herself to look out beyond the tower blocks, glimpsing the rusting, decayed form of Unit 02 in the dim moonlight.

One thing Instrumentality had shown her was Shinji's life. He'd had it just as hard as her, if not harder. She gave him so amny qualms, yet he never seemed to mind. It seemed he liked it that way, because that was who she was then. Of course, the very last thing that she had to see before she rejected Instrumentality was that disgusting act by the hospital bed. Initially, she had been angry, but as time went on, she forgot and forgave. She couldn't deny her feelings: she _wanted_ him.

He had shown nothing but love and care for her, allowing her to confide in him, to cry with him, to sleep with him. He wanted the old Asuka back, the dominant red-head. He missed her calling him Baka-Shinji. But he was anything, but patient. Slowly, he was rebuilding her, showering her with love. And she accepted it.

Her confidence was back up. Man, she _had_ to stop pussying out over the dreams! She turned back towards the door. Good, she hadn't woken Shinji. Meant she could get back into bed with hassle. If he had woken though, she could just blame it on the thunderstorm in the distance.

Thunderstorm? There wasn't one forecast. Why then could she hear the rumble of thunder? And why was it constant?

It was only then she noticed that the ambient light had been slowly increasing. She edged back towards the balcony. There! A stream of brilliant white light was shooting down towards the ground at immense speeds. A meteorite! This was a once in a lifetime experience! She _had_ to see this. She gazed at it intently, tracking it down. It looked like it was going to land not to far away from Tokyo-4. It didn't seem to be very big, so it was unlikely it would blow up the city.

It slowed suddenly, unexpectedly. It roared in some form of protest, just as it crashed to the ground.

Pain. That was the first thing she felt. Immense mental pain. As if a piece of shrapnel had embedded itself into her forehead. She screamed in shock as her mind was overcome with images, things that made no sense. Racked by this onslaught, she collapsed, her brain shutting itself down to protect her already fragile mind.

"Asuka?!" came Shinji's desperate cry, "Asuka!" The door was forced aside as Shinji barreled onto the balcony, finding her prone form on the floor. As he ran back inside to phone for an ambulance, he failed to notice the fading glow from across the city, behind the mountains.

_...Asuka... we... are... linked... until... death..._


End file.
